Oakland Raiders: 2017 regular season team awards
By John Buhler
Offensive Player of the Year: Marshawn Lynch
At the start of the year, picking out Offensive Player of the Year might have been the toughest team award to sort out for these Raiders. The amount of talent coming back from the 2016 offense was ridiculous. Unfortunately, the offense would crater and fate would have it that a newcomer would end up being its best player.
So Offensive Player of the Year goes to none other than Beast Mode himself. Marshawn Lynch might have struggled at times out of the gate for the Silver and Black. However, he was the Raiders’ best offensive weapon from Week 9 on after his Week 8 suspension for shoving an official in the Thursday night game at home against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7.
After being retired for the 2016 NFL season, Lynch would rush the ball 207 times for 891 yards and seven touchdowns. He averaged 4.3 yards per carry in 15 games. As a receiver, Lynch had 20 catches for 151 yards. Lynch had two games where he rushed for over 100 yards and a third where he had over 100 all-purpose yards.
Overall, Lynch got better as the season wore on. His punishing running style was a huge talking point in a bad year for the Silver and Black. Needing 98 yards to join the exclusive 10,000 career rushing yards club in Week 17, Lynch had 101 yards and capped off what was actually a very good season for Beast Mode. Not bad for a guy that is 31 years old and spent 2016 away from the game.